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Posted By: wwh meerschaum - 12/07/03 07:49 PM
Literally, "seafoam" .A very finegrained calcium carbonate mineral, used to make pipes. Typically curved lilke a miniature saxophone, the step usually amber. I tried one, but could not enjoy it. I would never have smoked, except Army gave smokers a break every fifteen minutes, non-smokers got no break. All the cigarette companies gave new inductees cartons of cigarettes. Too hook them, of course.

Edit: search says "hydrated silicate of magnesium."

URL for a picture:
http://www.anatolianmagic.com/Prolist.asp?cat=50
Posted By: Wordwind Re: Step usually amber? - 12/25/03 09:58 AM
Very interesting that meerschaum means seafoam, wwh.

But you mistyped something here that I can't figure out:

"Typically curved lilke a miniature saxophone, the step usually amber."

What does 'the step usually amber' mean? I'm assuming you left something out...

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: Step usually amber? - 12/25/03 11:33 AM
I think that "the step" is the part of the pipe that goes in the mouth. it is very often made of another material, in this case, amber.

Posted By: wwh Re: Step usually amber? - 12/25/03 02:39 PM
"step" = typo for "stem"

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: too much eggnog... - 12/25/03 02:57 PM
yeahbut® "p" and "m" ain't that close on the keyboard...

Here's another picure of a Meerschaum pipe. If you explore the site, you'll find other pipes made out of meerschaum, some limited only by the imagination of the carver...

http://www61.pair.com/talbert/shopimp21.shtml

Posted By: wwh Re: too much eggnog... - 12/25/03 06:50 PM
typos - Dear etaoin, you are dealing with an advanced creator of typos.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: too much eggnog... - 12/25/03 07:58 PM
wwh, you are gifted in typos among your other many gifts.

wof': Those pipe pictures are fascinating. Almost makes me want to take up the smoking of pipes just to look at them.

Meershaum: Seafoam. Why again? Did wwh say why it's seafoam somewhere above? I haven't had too much eggnog, but I've had one too many Bloody Marys. Or is that Mary's? Or is that Maries? Isn't it fun down here beneath the equator where only we free spirits dwell?

Posted By: wwh Re: too much eggnog... - 12/25/03 08:54 PM
Why meeschaum? Probably some copy writer dreaded it us to
help sell it. There is a somewhat similar stone which American Indians used to make small symbolic sculptures.
I don't know if they also used it for their peacepipes, but it seems likely. I'll go search.

Results: Indian pipestone, sometimes called catlinite, has a very different chemical composition, but similar desirable
characteristics for carving peacepipes, etc.
Posted By: Bingley Re: too much eggnog... - 12/27/03 01:11 AM
In reply to:

yeahbut® "p" and "m" ain't that close on the keyboard...


They're mirror images. For 'p' your little finger goes up, for 'm' your index finger goes down.

Bingley

Posted By: Faldage Re: too much eggnog... - 12/27/03 01:30 AM
"p" and "m" ain't that close on the keyboard

I often find myself having typed a wrong word when the first several letters are the first few letters of a more common word. I will have typed in the more common word. Example: that for than (or is it than for that?).

Posted By: Bingley Re: too much eggnog... - 12/27/03 02:27 AM
from and form are my particular danger point.

Bingley
-tion for -the, and vice versa, slip past my censors.

Did you know typists type faster than they read? If you make a typist type word for word, by presenting the text one word at a time, the output slows drastically. There seems to be a significant "look-ahead buffer" that is essential for maximal efficiency.

A little like reading itself, I suspect: phrase-by-phrase is much faster than word-by-word. (Don't even _think_ of letter-by-letter.)


My all-time favorite, and I have no idea why I do it, is dictionalry for dictionary.

myslef for myself... or proababaly...

vocabularly for vocabulary

Posted By: wofahulicodoc typos are subtler than that - 12/29/03 08:53 PM
...and it's even gotten to the point where Microsoft Word will automatically correct "teh" into "the" unless you insist that it not. It also takes two capitals at the beginning of a sentence and turns them into one, thus changing EDitor ==> Editor

Posted By: wwh Re: typos are subtler than that - 12/29/03 10:00 PM
One of the things about Word97 was that I would accidentally touch a key that turned on a goodam macro I didn't want, and couldn't get out of, except by shutting off computer and starting over. I never got up the energy to RTFM suffiently to learn about macros I didn't even want to use.

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: hotdamn - 12/29/03 10:30 PM
goodam

one of my favorites, so far!

Posted By: maahey Re: too much eggnog... - 12/30/03 04:39 AM
'p' your little finger goes up,
Fald!! Take note...Bingley uses his right little too. HA!
......I fear, as the year ends, I am rapidly regressing into childhood. Endless rounds of the good stuff is making my brain soft. sheepish

Can't think of any typos now that I am super conscious of my typing effort, but all the ones that you mention and many more are very familiar!

Posted By: Bingley Re: typos are subtler than that - 01/01/04 01:11 AM
In reply to:

and it's even gotten to the point where Microsoft Word will automatically correct "teh" into "the" unless you insist that it not.


but, but, but, teh is the Indonesian for tea.

Bingley

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